


Goner, kid.

by Elacular



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 04:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12225657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elacular/pseuds/Elacular
Summary: Once, Monster Kid had a sister.





	Goner, kid.

“Sis? What’s the matter?”

 

To an untrained eye, the two yellow, armless dino monsters looked almost identical. One was a few inches taller than the other, though it was hard to tell with her sitting down and them standing up, and wore a checkerboard shirt rather than a striped one, but that seemed to be the only difference. The taller one growled at the littler one as they asked the question. “None of your business. Shut up.”

 

“Oh...okay. But are we still gonna have the celebration? The naming ceremony?”

 

“No, no we’re not.”

 

“What?” The smaller dino’s jaw dropped. “But I was so excited! I wanted to find out what your name was gonna be! We were all gonna have cake!”

 

“Well you can’t always get what you want, huh turdface? Get lost!”

 

The small monster didn’t even flinch, instead crouching down next to her. “Sis...did our parents say you weren’t going to get named?”

 

“I said go away.”

 

“But-”

 

“Just forget it, monster kid! Or I’ll beat you up.”

 

Monster kid looked down at her, frowning softly before they finally walked away. Their sister slammed the door behind them and stomped back to the far corner of the room, but pressing their ear against it, they could still hear her crying. “...MOM! DAD!”

 

Kid ran down the stairs and found a short armed tyrannosaur and an older looking Woshua. “What do you want, Kid?” The Woshua said in a burbling, masculine voice, smoking a bubble pipe.

 

“Did you really tell Sis that she couldn’t have her name yet?”

 

“Of course we did!” the tyrannosaur said, her voice low, but extremely anxious as she tapped her barely there claws together. “She’s still a child, like you!”

 

“But she’s old enough for the ceremony! I’ve heard of monsters who practice late-naming getting the ceremony as young as me!”

 

“Yes, but then she’ll be able to get l-legal papers and go all sorts of places and get herself in t-trouble!” Mom clicked her claws together faster. “I can’t l-let her out in the world like that without s-supervision! Look, we give you kids a lot of freedom! We let you hang out around snowdin and even send you to school even though the world is full of evil and fear and confusion! You could run into anything! A crazy person, a child molester, a h-h-h-human...”

 

“Germs,” Dad inserted, nodding sagely.

“Yes, that too! It’s safest to just...stay indoors...all the time. Like I do.”

 

“Or work at the soap factory like me.”

 

“Even that’s dangerous!” The dinosaur flapped her claws anxiously. “You could slip and crack your head and die! Look, until the two of you understand that the safest thing to do is to stay inside hoping that maybe someone with a nice knock will come and rap on the door, you clearly aren’t adults.”

 

“Wait...” The gears were visibly turning in Monster Kid’s head. “So...we aren’t adults until we want to stay inside all the time, but we don’t get a bunch of freedoms and stuff until we’re adults?

 

“Yes! I don’t know what’s so difficult about this to understand!”

 

Kid’s nose scrunched up. “I can kinda see why sis was so mad now.”

 

Their parents turned to look at them. After a moment, the father was the first to speak. “Kid, go to your room.”

 

“What? Just for saying I agree with my sister?”

 

“No. Because it’s past your bedtime.”

 

“Oh. Right. Thbbbt.” Kid stalked back up to their room, deliberately going as slowly as possible.

 

\------

 

The next few days went by, and Kid’s sister kept acting like absolutely nothing had happened. It seemed almost like she’d just forgotten about it, until a few days later. School was out, and Kid had started walking home when a tail wrapped around their neck and dragged them behind a building. “Glauk!”

 

“SHhh!” Sis loosened her grip on their neck, moving her tail to cover their mouth. “You think Undyne’s super cool, right?”

 

Kid’s eyes lit up and they nodded quickly. “MMM-HMMMPH!”

 

“Well...how’d you like to go down to waterfall and see her house?”

 

“MREEWEEE??? MMh...mh...mwayy...” Kid used their own tail to pry Sis’ away from their face. “Mom and Dad would hate it if we went out there.”

 

“Yeah. That’s why we’re not telling them.”

 

“Yo...” Kid’s eyes went wide. “So rebellious...they should totally make a movie about us.”

 

“Yup.”

 

\---

 

It took about an hour, counting the time Monster Kid spent fawning over Undyne’s house and trying to pick the lock, but eventually Kid wore out. “Yo...okay, this lock isn’t going anywhere anytime fast. I already talked to her dummy, looked through her windows and stole some dirt from her welcome mat, so I guess there’s not much else we can do here. Thanks for bringing me out, sis!”

 

“Anything for my favorite little sib.” She smirked. Kid started to walk back, but Sis quickly grabbed one of their legs with her tail and tripped them. “Wait. Before you go...have you ever wondered where the underground gets its power from?”

 

“Uh...no? It gets its power from the Core. That’s, like, first grade stuff, yo.”

 

Sis rolled her eyes. “Okay yeahhhhhh...but have you ever wondered what the Core is like? Like, on the inside?”

 

“Um...also no? What’s gotten into you?”

 

She was silent for a moment before a broad grin spread across her face. “Wanna go to Hotland?”

 

“What? No! Yo, Mom’s already gonna have a conniption!”

 

“So? Maybe she needs a little conniption in her life! How’re we ever supposed to be anything if we’re trapped all the time!”

 

“I dunno, sis, the Core’s dangerou-”

 

“Danger this, danger that, ‘yo yo yo’,” Sis snarled, her tail and claws digging into the ground. “Look, do you wanna live in the house your whole life, just being ‘Monster Kid’ and never growing up into anything forever? Or do you wanna come with me and have an adventure?” Monster Kid said nothing, shrinking into themselves and curling their tail around their feet. Sis sighed, her own energy seeming to drain. “You’re gonna be just like her. Hiding from your own shadow forever. You’ll _never_ be like Undyne.” Kid stared up at her, brown eyes large and teary. For a moment, Sis was shocked, but she made herself keep going. “I’m gonna go to the core. I’m choosing to have an adventure. I’m going to be brave, be a grown up, be _someone_. And don’t. You.”

 

_______________________________

 

“Forget...”

 

Sis looked around. It smelled like metal. Everything was all white. Or...black? For some reason, she couldn’t tell. There were three figures. Grey ones. She walked up to the tallest one. “H...hello? I’m lost.”

 

The tall one turned around and she gasped, seeing that all there was of their face was a broadly smiling mouth, whiskers and the ears atop their head. They held a second face in their hand, one with eyes and a mouth. It was this face that spoke while the one on their head kept smiling, as though the corners of its lips were trying to reach the tips of its ears. “I’d say you are. You’ve strayed too far.”

 

A shorter shape walked from the corner, looking almost like a caricature of bipedal monsters. Like a cookie cutout. “Now now...how lost could you be? We’ve found you.”

 

“U-uh...”

 

Before she could answer, the third monster materialized behind her. This one was a head, popping out of the ground and twice her height. Its mouth took up almost all of it, separating its head into a thin sliver of an upper jaw with an eye on either side and a wide lower jaw. “Fell or jumped?”

 

“What?”

 

“Did you fall? Or did you jump? Or perhaps...” the monster opened its maw. She could see all the nothing inside of it as its upper jaw landed behind her, its whole head opened up over her. “Were you...pushed?” The upper jaw hit against her back, nearly sending her stumbling over its lower teeth and into the nothing.

 

“Enough!”

 

The voice sounded like it was thousands all at once. Or maybe as though it was echoing over and over inside of a cave. Either way, though, the nothing was gone in an instant, and the head monster backed away. “I’m sorry...” it spoke, bowing shamefacedly. “Terribly rude...”

 

Sis turned around slowly. Behind her, there was a man. It looked like he might have been a skeleton once, but his body was molten. He was hunched over, parts melting into parts, holes in his hands and cracks around his eyes. Slowly, the being moved towards her, bits of himself bubbling off and fading into the aether. He reached out and placed a surprisingly solid hand on her shoulder. She could feel the empty space in his palm. “Now. Do you remember how you came to be here?”

 

“I...the core and...”

 

The creature with the face in its (their?) hand scoffed. “The core, the core, always the core. To purgatory, it’s a door. I regret that it was made, no matter how well I was paid.”

 

“Oh come now,” the cookie cutter said. “It’s given life and happiness to so many monsters...how much regret can you really have?”

 

The face in the tall monster’s hand glared at cookie cutter. (Glared at...her?) and the head monster shook its (his?) head. “One way or another, here we all are. She’s clearly a part of us now. We’re beginning to understand each other.”

 

The skeleton’s bony hand gently squeezed her shoulder. “Well, let’s start with a name at least. What’s your name? Mine is W.D. Gaster.”

 

“I...I don’t have one. I’m too young for that, and my parent’s wouldn’t...please, just...tell me how I can get home.”

 

“Did you hear that? ‘Home’.” Cookie cutter laughed softly, shaking her head. “The others won’t say it right out, so I’ll tell you what’s up: You’re a goner, kid.”

 

“What?...no. No, nonononono. No no no, that...you can’t just...I-I’m just a kid! Kids aren’t supposed to die! I haven’t done anything! I-”

 

Before she could say more, facehand’s laugh interrupted them. “Don’t you fret your scaly head. You only wish that you were dead.”

 

The skeleton sighed, a sound that felt incredibly old and sounded like static. “Come with me. I can bring you to your home. It won’t be a good thing, but it’s the only way anything will make sense.”

 

He took his hand off of her shoulder and held it out to her. Warily, she unwound her tail from around one of her legs and placed it softly in Gaster’s hand. He gripped for barely a second, and as he did, she felt all the world rush past her a thousand times, miniscule differences visible for barely a moment before they were right in front of her home. Slowly, glancing back at Gaster, Sis took a few, shaky steps forward. The snow didn’t crunch beneath her feet. It didn’t even depress. Step. Step step. Step. ...and she was running. Sis ran to her house, screeching to a halt and banging on the door with her tail. The sound was muted. She could hear it, but nobody else could. She could tell. Her mother would have sighed at her for having such a forceful knock.

 

Behind her, Sis heard snow crunching. She turned around and saw her sibling running towards her at full tilt. “Monster Kid! Kid, I’m sorry, I-” she froze midword as Kid ran through her, opening the door and slamming it shut behind them. For just a moment, Sis was stock still. She turned to stare at Gaster. “Am...am I dead?”

 

“It’s not so simple. Come, look.” Gaster moved to the window. His movement was smooth and seamless, as though he was floating. He gestured towards her, and Sis ran over, jumping up and clinging to the windowsill with her tail and teeth. She felt herself slipping, but Gaster grabbed her and placed her more firmly on the sill. Inside, through the frost, she could see and hear her family.

 

“Monster Kid, where on earth have you been! Don’t you know we’ve been worried s-sick about you?” her mother’s voice sounded even louder and more scared than usual.

 

“That doesn’t matter, yo! Sis told me to go and visit Undyne’s house, and it was okay for a little while, but then she told me I was a coward and ran off to the core so I ran home to try and get help! She’s going to hurt herself!”

 

The family was silent as Monster Kid breathed heavily. Sis bit her tail and looked down shamefacedly. It was their Woshua father who spoke up first. “Kid...blaming everything on your imaginary friend is getting really out of hand.”

 

“Huh?” It was Kid who said it, but Sis felt the same.

 

“You...you know you don’t have a sister...right?”

 

“Oh...” Kid seemed to have a moment of clarity and almost sadness. “Oh...right. I...forgot, yo. Um...if I don’t have a sister, then where are all the bad things I hear about myself coming from?”

 

“We...may need to take you to counselling.” Their mother started panicking, but Woshua shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll be the one to take them. But don’t worry Kid. We’ll figure this out. Just...don’t blame things on things that don’t exist anymore, okay?”

 

“...Okay dad.”

 

Kid slowly trudged up to their room. Sis couldn’t bring herself to move at all. From far away, she heard her parents voices, talking about how a child Monster Kid’s age shouldn’t have an imaginary friend and wondering what would put ideas about how “bad” they were into Kid’s head. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sis picked all this up. But her eyes were just staring into the distance, not even blinking when her mother came over and closed the curtains of the window. When she finally spoke again, she couldn’t tell how long had passed. “They...don’t remember. They don’t remember me! None of them remember...what...”

 

“No. They don’t.” Gaster’s voice sounded weary, and when she looked at him, she found she had to look down, as his body had become more liquid. “The person you were closest to may have some inkling of what is lost...have some vacancies that are unaccounted for...this will be nothing but painful for them. But otherwise, you are gone. Those who fall into the core do not just die, their magic...their soul...everything that made them who they are are scattered across the atoms of the underground. No, not just that. Scattered across the atoms and the empty spaces between them. The compilation of your memories is bound to the spaces and the emptiness, but I’m able to cheat...to get us into some of the atoms. Not to interact. Just to watch.”

 

“What does that mean for me?”

 

The skeleton tried to smile, but he failed. “It means that, to all but your sibling, you never existed. And even to them, you’re just incomplete memories of what’s supposed to be there. And life will go on without you.”

 

Sis’ breath began to come faster. “But...but what about...my mom is neurotic, she must be going crazy wondering where I am!”

 

“You saw that she isn’t.”

 

“Well...well, I have friends at school! They’d care! A-and my teachers! They’ll call my not-name at roll call, right?”

 

Gaster stared up at her. There were green lights in his eyesockets, but they were just barely there, and the cracks in his skull slightly caved in on themselves, giving him a look of intense sadness. “How old were you?”

 

“Th...thirteen.”

 

He pressed his empty palm to his face, and she heard a sound, somewhere between a sigh, a groan and a sob. For an uncomfortably long time, Gaster was perfectly still. Eventually, he held out his hand to her again, refusing to look up. “Let’s go back. Staying here won’t do either of us any good.”

 

Sis searched for something to say, or at least a reason to say something she knew she shouldn’t. She wanted to tell this skeleton to go to hell, or maybe just to get her out of it. But she couldn’t force any sound out of her throat. So she placed her tail in his hand, getting once last look at the curtains of her old house before it all faded away.


End file.
